Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. Of the Affection of …y Delight. The severall Objects thereof, Corporall, Morall, Intellectuall, Divine.
THe next Passions in order belonging to the Concupiscible Faculty, are those two, which are wrought by the Presence of, and Vnion to an Object; and that is, when either wee by our desires have reached the Object, which worketh Ioy and Delight: or when in our flight the Object hath overtakenforeign E…hic. l. 2. c. 3. us, which worketh Griefe and Sorrow. And these two do beare the most inward relation unto and influence upon all our actions. Whereupon Aristotle in his Ethicks hath made them the foundation of our vertues, and rules of our working. And the reason is naturall, because the end of our motion is to attaine rest, and avoid perturbation.Cicer. Tusc. l. 4. foreign. Zeno apud Lae…. l. 7. Cum. Alex. strom. lib▪ 2. foreign Rbe…o. l. 1. c. 11▪ Now Delight is nothing else but the Sabbath of our thoughts, and that sweet tranquility of mind, which we receive from the Presence and Fruition of that good, wherunto our Desires have carried us. And therefore the Philosopher in one place call it a motion of the Soule with a sensible and felt instauration of Nature, yet elsewhere hee as truly telleth us that it standeth rather in *foreign Ei… ▪ l. 7. c. ul….rest than motion; as on the other side Griefe is the streightning and anguish of our minds wrought out of the sense and burden of some present Evill oppressing our Nature. NowGaudere in Sinu. Ci…. foreign. Iliad. …. these Passions are diverse, according to the diversity of the Objects: which are either Sensitive and Bodily; and then Delight is called Voluptas Qui sapit in tactio gaudeat ille Sin…. Tibul. Vid. … de Orthodox. side lib 2. cap. 13. & Nemes. de Anima. c. 18Pleasure, being a medicine and supply against bodily indigence and defects: or Intellectuall and Divine, and then it is called Gaudium Ioy, being a sweet and delightfull tranquillity of minde, resting in the fruition and possession of a good. So also is the other Passion of Sadnesse considered; which in respect of the Body is called a Sense of Paine; in respect of the Soule, a Sense of Griefe.
First then for the Object of our Delight; it is onelyonly that which can yeeld some manner of satisfaction unto our nature, not as it is a corrupt and erring, but as it is an Empty and perfectible nature. Whatsoever then is either Medicinall for the Repairing, or Naturall for the Conserving, or any way helpefull for the advancing of a Creature, is the onelyonly true and allowable object of its Delight. Other pleasures which eat out and undermine Nature, as water which by little & little insensibly consumeth the bank against which it beateth, or as *A…bores uecat omnem … …. lo, &c. … l. 16. c 34.…vie which seemeth to adorn the Tree unto which it cleaveth, but indeed sucketh out and stealeth away the sap therof, may haply yield some measure of vanishing content to mindes, which tast every thing with a corrupted palate; but certainely such sophisticall premises can never inferre in the conclusion any other than a perfunctory and tottering content. And thereforeEpist. 59. Aug. de Civlt. De…, l. 14. c. 8. Seneca is bold to find an impropriety in Virgils Epithite, Mala Gaudia, Ioyes which issue from a polluted fountaine; as not having in them that inseparable attribute of absolute Delight; which is to be unvariable. For how can a mind (unlesse blinded with its owne impostures, and intangled in the errours of a mis led affection) receive any nourishing and solid content in that, which is in it selfe vanishing, and unto its Subject destructive? Whatsoever then may bee delighted in, must have some one of the forenamed conditions, tending either to the Restitution of decayed nature,foreign. Nemes. c. 18. to the preservation of entire nature, or to the Perfection of Empty nature. And to the former and …mperfecter sort of t…ese, Aristotle referreth all …orporeall and sensitive Pleasures (unto which heEthic l. 7. c. 14. foreign. …herefore granteth a secondary and accidentall goodnesse) which hee calleth foreign the Medi…ines of an indigent nature; whereby the defects …hereof are made up, and it selfe disburdened of …hose cares, which for the most part use to follow …he want of them.
Herein then I observe a double corruption; an …nnaturall and unlimited Delight. Vnnaturall, I …eane those accursed pleasures, which were exer…ised by men given over to vile affections and … in the pursuing of lusts, whose very names abhorre the light. Vnlimited Delights are those, which exceed the bounds of Nature, and the prime Institution of lawfull and indifferent things. For such is the condition of those, that if they repaire not, and strengthen nature, *Undes…ctum ut qu… ad funera per…erent in Templ… ventris venderentur. vid. Plutarch. qu… Rom. q. 23.they weaken and disinable it; as in the body Luxury breeds diseases, and in the mind Curiosity breeds Errours.
Other Objects there are of a wider nature than those, which concerne the Body; and they are both the Morall and Contemplative Actions of the Mind; To both which Aristotle hath attributedEthic. l. 10. c. 7. principally this passion; but more specially to the latter, whose object is more pure and whose Acts lesse laborious, as residing in that part of the Soule, which is most elevate from sense: and therefore most of all capable of the purest simplest and unmixed Delights. Now every thing is the more free, cleare, independant; spirituall, by how much it is the more unmixed. And these are the choisest perfections, whereby the Soule may be filled with joy. It is true indeed, that oftentimes the contemplations of the mind have annexed unto them both Griefe and Anxiety; but this is never naturall to the act of Knowledg, which is alwaies in its owne vertue an impression of Pleasure: But it ariseth either out of the sublimity of the Object, which dazleth the power; or out of the weaknesse and doubtings of the Vnderstanding, which hath not a cleare light thereof; or out of the admixtion and sleeping them in the Humours of the Affections, whereby men minister unto themselves desperate thoughts or weake feares, or guilty griefes, or unlimited Desires, according as is the property of the Object joyned with their own private distempers: Thus we see the Intuition of Divine Truth in minds of defiled affections, worketh not that sweet effect which is naturall unto it, to produce, but Doubtings,Ioh. 3. 20. Iob 21. 14. Isa. 30. 11. 2 Pet. 3. 5. Terrours and Disquietings of Conscience; it being the propertie of the workes of Darknesse to be afraid of the word of Light. But of all these former objects of mans Delight (because they are amongst Salomons Catalogue of things under theEccles. 2. 2. foreign Sunne) none are here without vexation and vanities: For to let passe the lightning of an idle mirth, which indeed is madnesse and not Ioy. ForSoph…c Alex. Senec. Epist. … 3 Seneca telleth us that true Ioy is a serious and severe thing: and not to meddle with riches and other secular Delights, which have wings to fly from us and thornes to prick us, even that highest naturall Delight of the Mind, Knowledge, and the heavenly eloquence of the Tongues of Angels (which a man would think were above the Sunne, and therfore not obnoxious to Salomons vanity) would be in man, without the right corrective thereof, but a tinkling noise, yeelding rather a windy Pleasure than a true Delight. The properties whereof is not to puffe up, but to replenish. And therefore it is the prayer of Saint Paul, The God of Peace fill …. 15. 13.you with all Ioy. True heavenly Ioy is a filling, a satiating Ioy: a Ioy unspeakeable, with Saint Peter; a Peace past understanding, with Saint Paul. Nor doth this property of overflowing and swallowing the Mind add any degrees of offence or anxiety therunto: for it is not the weaknesse of the soule, as it is of the body to receive hurt from the excellency of that which it delighteth in, nor doth the mind desire to subdue or conquer, but onelyonly to be united with its object.
And here the onelyonly corruption of our Delight is, the deficiency and imperfections of it. For though this blessed Light leaves not any man in the shadow of death, yet it takes him not quite out of the shadow of sinne, by the darknesse wherof hee is without much of that lustre and glory, which he shall then have, when the righteous shal shine like the Sunne in the Firmament. Yet at the least our endeavours must be, that though our Ioyes cannot be here a Repl…nishing Ioy, yet it may be an Operative Ioy, and so worke out the measure of its own fullnesse. I have done with the severall Objects of mans delight, Corporall, Morall, Intellectuall and Divine.